Cops: She Set Her Price, Then Cut Off Own Hand

A circular saw is seen here. (Getty Images/talevr)A circular saw is seen here. (Getty Images/talevr)

(Newser)
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A woman in Slovenia claims she slipped and accidentally cut off her own hand while sawing branches off a tree. Police, however, say the 21-year-old chopped off her hand on purpose, thinking it would set her up for life. For police, the life and injury insurance taken out in advance of the January incident is too convenient to overlook. Per ABC News and AFP, the unemployed woman with no source of income had made just two or three monthly payments on the coverage from five separate companies, which would've provided a lump sum of $430,000 after her injury, monthly payments of $3,388 for 10 years, and smaller payments after that.

Instead of a payday, the woman and a 29-year-old relative are facing up to eight years in prison in Slovenia, where the average monthly net income is about $1,100. Per the BBC, two other relatives were detained but released. Police say the woman's family was complicit in the fraud involving a circular saw at their home in Ljubljana. They note relatives brought the woman to a hospital without the left hand, which had been severed above the wrist, because compensation would've been three times higher for a permanent disability. Police retrieved the hand, which was reattached. "Her hand is recovering well," per a police spokesperson. (Read more insurance fraud stories.)